What’s the first thing you do in the morning? It’s highly likely you check your smartphone and, while you’re at it, you browse through and read emails. The latter is a ritual amongst most adults, and for good reason. Emails are where we get important information that can help us throughout the day.

It’s obvious then that we want wake up and gloss over something spectacular. But what are the kind of emails that customers want to see in their inboxes? There are plenty, but here are five that truly have an impact on how we feel and interact with brands.

1.    The fill-it-up-yourself

Allowing the audience to interact with your email is an excellent way to increase engagement. This is especially so when you show them how the product works or looks.

Pret, a restaurant chain that sells natural food, knows how to engage with their audience using email marketing. The interactive mailer can be experienced here. One of its interactive mailers gives the consumer the ability to fill up a cup with their choice of natural juice. When they select a flavour, the cup starts to fill up. The imagery is clean and sleek, displaying beautiful images that react to the touch of a button.

2.    The giveaway

If you’re selling beauty products, your email has to be stunningly refreshing. More eyes glean over it when it makes use of excellent visuals such as gifs.

Charlotte Rhys, a fragrance company, provides a visually striking interactive mailer that makes use of gifs. The intent is to try get their target to enter a competition. As a result, the brand makes use of a gif that interchanges between two good-looking models dressed in elegant white and black dresses, and set beside corresponding bottles of perfume, the fragrance being the prize.

3.  The big reveal 

Keeping your customers in suspense can be a winner, although the timing must be right. You don’t want to keep them out of the loop for far too long, or else they’ll just close your mail and read another.

The high end clothing company, Tory Burch, cloaks it suspense in what appears to be an exclusive mailer to its customers. Initially the audience is met by the gold Tory Burch logo revolving on an orange background. Soon after it opens up like a sliding door to reveal a private sale where the email recipients can get up to 70% off.

4.  The anniversary celebration

Showing gratitude for all the support you receive from your customers never goes wrong. In fact, it’s likely to win you more loyalty.

This is the case with Little Woods, which is also a clothing company, shows their gratitude with an anniversary mailer. The first thing you see is the words Happy Anniversary at the top of the mailer, followed by a gif of a cupcake with an animated candle. The visuals are well done, with the message being clear. For more incentive, the reader gets 10% off.

As you can seem, the key to producing excellent emails is to be creative with design and copy. Customers want to be wowed and, if they are, they’re going to engage better with your mailer.